Michael Jackson will appear at a Christmas party Dec. 19 in Japan where tickets will cost as much as $4,420 each, the Melbourne Herald Sun reported. Jackson is not scheduled to sing but will join fans listening to his recorded music and watching a performance that will include a group of gospel singers. Perhaps it’s a good thing Jackson will not perform. He was booed off the stage on Nov. 15 after his voice cracked while unsuccessfully trying to sing at the World Music Awards in London.
Barbra Streisand made the final performance of her alleged 2006 farewell concert tour Monday night at the Staples Center. Streisand teased the crowd, telling them this was “the last time I’m ever … going to wear this dress. What did you think I was going to say?” USA Today reported Streisand confirmed she has been approached to sing in China and is considering “maybe six more” (shows) in Europe.
Britney Spears is shopping for new digs in Florida, Star magazine reported. We’ve already noted how Spears is selling her Mailbu, Calif., home, but apparently the pop star has a house-buying limit of $29 million for a Miami-area abode, the Star wrote. Spears also is rumored to be considering a 20-week, $15 million gig at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, MSNBC.com reported. Spears is good friends of the hotel owners, the Maloof brothers.
Gwen Stefani could be joining Spears in Las Vegas. Skynews.com’s Neil Sean reports the No Doubt lead singer has been offered a six-week stint in which she would perform a cutting-edge sample from “The Sound Of Music.” Stefani told Sean: “It’s the old-fashioned glamour that I think my fans admire in me. If we can work out some dates we will.”
Penelope Cruz embraced fellow actress Jessica Lange recently at an event at the St. Regis hotel in New York. The New York Post’s Liz Smith reported that Cruz told Lange: “I can die happy. Now, in New York, all in one day I have seen two of the women I admire most – you and Susan Sarandon!”
Will Smith told Readers Digest he and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, home-school their children. “The date of the Boston Tea Party does not matter,” Smith told the magazine. “I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in front of the class.” Son Jaden (pictured) co-stars as Smith’s son in the upcoming film, “The Pursuit of Happyness.”
The 11th rendition of “The Amazing Race” will be an all-stars edition, CBS confirmed to Variety. Past cast members of the Emmy-winning reality series will include Rob and Amber, former winners Joyce and Uchenna, and the Kentucky couple David and Mary, recently eliminated from “Amazing Race 10.” Production began last week and the show is expected to air in first quarter of next year.
Prince Charles has spent nearly $2 million for a three-bedroom farmhouse in a remote hamlet in Wales, the Daily Mirror reported. The estate, known as Llwywormwood, is in the tiny village of Myddfai, near Llanddewi Brefi, which was the inspiration for the home of Little Britain’s “Only Gay in the Village” character, Daffyd. The farmhouse, on a 192-acre estate, will be ready for Charles and his wife, Camilla, by the end of March 2007, Clarence House confirmed.
